Admiral Nelsen

I'd certainly be very open to having Ainsworth - very impressive record with what he has to work with. One thing in the against column for me is that he seems to have built his success on having a very direct brand of football, which I'm not against at all on principle but it's very chalk and cheese compared to how we've been playing for the last year or so. Ideally I'd be looking for a manager with a record of playing a possession-based game but more effectively and with a bit of steel defensively. I could see David Wagner going very well for that reason. Maybe that's harsh on Ainsworth, and to be fair we probably have at least 2/3 players who would benefit with us being more direct anyway.

Same team, other than Nyambe in for JRC

Have to say I've been very impressed with Joe in the last two games. I thought his performances earlier in the season were a bit of a mixed bag where he didn't always do himself justice, but against Millwall & Swansea he's been great. I just desperately hope that he can stay fit long term, both for his sake and ours.

He did - I was probably wrong to say the perfect example for that reason. Can't imagine Buckley ever picking up the number of cards that Scholes did for his 'mistimed' tackles! Still, he's an example of a player who coped fine against midfielders who were much bigger, stronger, quicker and fitter than he was - mainly by using his brain and being brave when he had to. Personally I think that's the blueprint for Buckley too, rather than hitting the weights and bulking up, although I accept that you're making a different point about his stamina. You could well be right about that, although I'm not sure that he's started enough games to be sure one way or the other!

Nasty bastard he certainly was, and I agree you can't completely change the personality of the player. Seems very unlikely that Buckley will ever have that streak in him, so no arguments there. Back to Buckley though, the Scholes example (although we could just as easily mention some of the diminutive midfielders Spain have churned out over the last 10-15 years) shows that being brave and reading the game well enough can more than compensate for being lightweight. Remains to be seen if Buckley has those characteristics, but I think we find out by playing him more regularly and then see what he's like after a run of starts. Wouldn't do him any harm to have another half a stone of muscle on him, but I don't think it's as important as it is sometimes suggested on here. Certainly wouldn't be the priority for me at the expense of developing other aspects of his game.

I was impressed with JRC on his return, but we're obviously going to have to be hyper-careful with his hamstrings. We'll be doing plenty more defending in this one too, so I'd have Nyambe in at right back as the only change.

Couldn't agree more that Scholes is the perfect example for Buckley to follow - but I think the lessons he'll need to learn are more about attitude and using his brain than physically bulking up. Scholes was asthmatic and about 8 stone wet through for pretty much his whole career, but he had a serious amount of devilment in him and was never afraid to put his foot in when he didn't have the ball. He wasn't bullied when in possession that much mainly because his brain and feet were sharp enough to avoid those situations in the first place. I think that's the template for Buckley - be sharp and brave enough to anticipate where he can win the ball out of possession (good signs on that front yesterday) and be a bit cleverer with his positioning and decision making when we have the ball (much more of a work in progress). I'm hopeful that we'd see big dividends once he gets a proper run of starts, but we'll have to wait and see.

Perhaps. They've had appalling luck with injuries to defenders too, and their back three have been so important to their success. I think the next club who get Wilder will have got themselves a good manager, although I wonder if after such a torrid year he might need a bit of a break. If Mowbray does go, I'm happy enough that we're looking outside Britain for the right option, although I hope there's more thought gone into it than 'Barnsley & Reading are doing well with foreign managers, therefore we'll go foreign too. I know it didn't end particularly well at Huddersfield, but with the squad we have I think we could do plenty worse than David Wagner.

Completely fair criticism. Being generous I'd say that we might put a lot of his stray passes in the first 30 mins or so down to him being rusty, but they were still moments of poor play so it doesn't do anybody any favours to dress them up too much. There was a lot of good and bad with him yesterday, but the the good was definitely enough to show that there's some proper talent there. The work out of possession shows that it's a bit of a myth that he needs to 'toughen up' too. Far more important for players of his type to be sharp enough to get to the ball first, and then on the occasions that you do need to make the tackle, be brave enough to commit. Good signs on that front yesterday. I think he just needs a run of starts. Looking really likely that we'll be without Holtby and Downing next year, who are broadly similar players. Assuming we're safe, I'd look to give him a run this season because as likely as not we'll be expecting a good deal more from him next year.

Just posted above about Buckley, thought he was poor on the ball in the first twenty minutes or so but over the course of the game played some very nice stuff too. If Dack, Rothwell or Elliott played that first time pass to Gally for his chance in the second half we wouldn't have shut up about it. Did well to set up Dack for what should've been a penalty too. Gave the ball away too much too, especially early on, but overall I think he grew into the game excellently.

One good performance doesn't make up for a poor couple of months, but we were genuinely impressive today. Much more like the performances at the start of the year. He took a while to get in the game, but there were some really good contributions from Buckley too which were good to see. He has flaws to iron out, but his talent is there.

Best move for all parties. Decent defender on his day, but sadly hasn't played nearly enough games to warrant keeping. Seemed like a decent sort though and was an important cog in the promotion winning team. Hope his move to the US works out.

Yes, no arguments there. To clarify I'm not suggesting that I expect him to be a key player for us from the start of next season. If he is, he would need to improve fairly drastically on most of his performances his season. My point is that those two would be candidates to play similar roles to him, and his new contract is probably a sign that they'll be on their way come the end of the year (we probably already knew that about Downing in fairness). I do think though that there's a lot more to come from him though, and there'll come a point in the not too distant future where he really changes some opinions. I've never really bought the idea that he needs to go out on loan to 'toughen up' particularly, but he definitely needs to get a run of games to develop, either here or elsewhere.

I'd guess this means that we won't be renewing Holtby's contract at the end of the year, and with Downing 99% calling it a day will mean that he'll be getting the game time that this season has gone to those two. Personally, I think this is one that we'll see dividends with down the line. Won't dispute that he has had too many games which have completely passed him by, but equally he's not really had a consistent run yet either. We certainly have bigger things to worry about, but I'm glad that we've got this one sorted.

I know what you mean. They remind me even more of us when we first relegated. Moments of quality from Rhodes/Gomes/MGP had us winning games that we never looked like controlling. On today's showing they look a million miles away from a promotion standard team. They have a few more points on the board, but I'd put them alongside Bournemouth as candidates to drop out of the top 6.

He's a better first touch away from being an excellent Championship forward, be it in the centre or out wide in my opinion. Sadly that part of his game has really let him down at times in the last 18 months, but he still has wonderful qualities. I'm not sure if we're going with two up top today, but if we are then him & Arma should be real handful for any defence in this league.

Just seen that Evans is playing for the U23s, so that solves that mystery!

I can see Bennett getting on the bench given our lack of options at right back. If Davenport is fit, there shouldn't be any reason for Evans to get in the squad with the players we have available.

To be fair, those sorts of numbers didn't stop some Rovers fans putting Modeste up there with Ashley Ward! Agree that his good spells vastly outweighed the bad. As you say, he was excellent for us and I'm sad that he couldn't get rid of a few demons by banging a few in back in the North East.

Agree. I also think this is the first season where our squad is good enough to view a top six finish as something to expect (or at least expected to get very close to) rather than just hope for. This means two things. First, it's completely fair to hold TM to a higher standard for this season's finish, but also that he deserves credit for the squad being improved enough on a fairly modest budget that we can have those higher expectations.

Not just the opinion of those of un on here either, believe WhoScored have him in their team of the month.

Josh King attracting interest from a few it seems. Don't expect we'll get a massive windfall like we could have done last year, but would be nice if it could pay off the fee for Pickering.

I'm definitely an optimist when it comes to Rovers, and have pretty consistently said that Mowbray gets far too much stick on here, but I think saying that he's been dealt crumbs is a little too far. As his detractors have been quick to point out, he hasn't been forced to sell any of our first teamers since his arrival, and whilst our budget means that he needs to look for value it's clear that we still have more spending power than a few in this league. I agree that he is developing the squad quite nicely, and a couple of buys have been tremendous investments, so perhaps I'm splitting hairs a bit.

Some woeful content from Rovers here which I'm ashamed to say actually made me laugh.

He had a six-hundred grand release clause, didn't he? Or somewhere in that region? Then again I suppose the loan back may have shaved a little bit off the asking price. Like you I've definitely seen some improvement in Douglas, and I'm comfortable enough with having him starting for the rest of the season. Even so I think the ideal situation would have been to bring him in straight away if we could have sold Bell too, albeit for a very small fee, and let Picking & Douglas battle it out.